The Hero's Historia
by Abyssal Dreamer
Summary: A collection of short stories and poetry about the Hero of Time, from his beginnings in the forest 'til the lonely bitter end. Includes spoilers for Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess. - "But no matter what time did, my heart and mind remained"
1. The Hero's Rest

**The Hero's Rest**

His work was done. All his skills and techniques, learnt from a lifetime of searching and fighting, passed on to the successor of his title. There was nothing left for him anymore. He sighed, a deep and wearied exhalation. He had never felt so tired and alone.

On the brink of his fractured and blurred vision he could make out a soft blue light. It was warm and familiar and if he were still mortal tears would have come to his eyes.

"It's time to go home, Link," the light had a soft but high and melodic voice, like a clear glass bell. Recognition dawned in old eyes.

"Navi…" he reached out, daring not to believe it. For too long he had searched. For too long he had hurt. "Navi, can it be true?"

"I'm here, Link. Come with me. Come home. We're all waiting for you," the ball of light jingled, now clear in his vision as the tiny blue fairy he had lost so very long ago. He staggered toward her, reaching out his palm so she could land upon it. Around him the cold ghostly world began to fade into beautiful, familiar forest. His tiredness drained away and his desecrated body began to resemble the Hylian physique of his youth. He could feel the sun on his face again.

"I'm coming Navi. Please wait for me. Don't go. Not again," his voice was as frail and desperate as a child's and to his relief, his fairy stayed close, gently guiding him through the ethereal forest. Soft, childlike laughter rang through the trees, echoing around him. He caught glimpses of green clad figures through the leaves, fairies dancing around their shoulders.

"We're all here, Link. We've waited for you for so long. You were so very lost, but we found you," she chimed softly, as the trees broke onto a meadow, a vast sea of green. To his delight, a small girl with bright green hair sat on the stump in its centre, playing an ocarina. She was soon joined by the figures in the treetops, the Kokiri running through the meadow with glee. Their laughter grew louder and more joyous as, surrounded by the people and the home he'd lost and now again found, the last forest child finally returned home.

* * *

_Originally published on my tumblr (Vivelagiygas) but expanded here. Set immediately after the Hero of Twilight learns the final hidden skill, and the Hero's Shade/Hero of Time is left to die._


	2. Old Friend

**Old Friend**

"Why do you do this?" I asked at our last meeting,  
Wearied, he looked at me, as if he'd missed my words,  
"Why do you exist like this, in between our worlds?"  
I knew he understood that time, he looked toward the sky,  
"Because I cannot rest, I cannot dream and die,  
For long ago she left me, alas I don't know why,  
Thus I swore that I would find her, no matter what the cost,  
I searched for her through twisted lands, when both of us were lost,  
And though I looked for many years, my efforts were in vain,  
So they took my body, my soul and then my name,  
But no matter what time did, my heart and mind remained,  
Stuck here I cannot find her, but I will not be still,  
This is why I train you, so you can learn my skill"  
He had fallen to the ground, and I knew it was the end,  
"I can fight no more," he said, "I can no longer wait,  
Here I am, my old friend, my hour is soon late,  
I swore to search until the end, and now the end is here,  
So my spirit will be leaving, and this body disappear,  
My country has forgotten me, my people are destroyed,  
Without you here beside me, my life is all but void."

* * *

_Originally published on my Allpoetry account (Abyssal Dreamer there too). Again, set at the Hero of Twilight's last training session. The Hero of Time is anguished at not only being unable to pass along his skills, but also the acceptance of his inability to find Navi, and his frustration at never being remembered as the hero he was, for his actions were not existent in this timeline, and also the disappearance of his people the Kokiri. He feels, though he has now succeeded in aiding Hyrule to some small extent by passing on his skills, his life at the very end no longer means anything without at least Navi by his side._


	3. The Hero

**The Hero**

'Let me tell you,' said the tree to his sons,  
'Of the story that has always begun,  
With a boy, and a legend, that he would come,  
To save us all from fire and flood,  
From evil and curses and terror and blood.'

'He was forest-born, like you and I,'  
And with this the tree gave a creaking sigh,  
Remembering some long lost ward,  
'The Goddesses chose his fate, and so,  
He left the woods so very long ago.'

'They made him a Hero, before his time,  
He was only a child, with a sweet mind,  
But thrust into the fight, he served them well'  
The children gazed upwards, waiting for tales,  
Of grandiose and glory that a Hero's life entailed.

'He met the Princess, and at her word,  
Found the sacred stones at the corners of the world,  
To open Time's Door and pull the Master Sword,  
But,' and he paused, 'he was too young and so,  
He was sealed away seven long years ago.'

And the tree looked towards the ruined sky,  
His children unable to understand why,  
In their doomed world, a Hero left,  
'But isn't he to save us all from this fate?'  
The youngest shook his head, 'He is too late.'

'No,' said his father, 'he is waiting for the call,  
Because his courage exists deep inside us all,  
And the Goddesses will someday beckon him,  
To save our Golden Land, and end the evil rule,  
That has its cruel grasp over sweet Hyrule'

The story ended there, the old tree said,  
Yet one last question lingered in young heads,  
'But what is his name?' they asked as the sun began to sink,  
'That's simple, my children, the Hero's name is Link'

* * *

_Originally published on my allpoetry account also. The Deku Tree tells the Kokiri the story of the Hero of Time during the time he lay in the Chamber of Sages._


	4. Memories under the Moon

**Memories under the Moon**

He could remember, sometimes. In brief, beautiful moments, he could recall the long emerald hours of the forest, and the laughter of the children he had once called his kin.

He would strain, with decrepit tendons tied to withered skin, his face toward the imaginary sunlight through the trees. With closed eyes he would smile, even though nothing from the cold grey expanse above provided any warmth on hollow cheeks. For these fleeting moments, he would see himself in his old glory, in his old country, in his old life.

In the rare moments he could breach Hyrule as a beast, he could howl the songs of his youth. Notes once played through an ocarina instead warbled from ghostly vocal cords. Under the moon on the clifftops, he could share not only his skills but also his memories. He had once feared forgetfulness, but all he sought now were these pockets of remembrance to share the remains of his old Hyrule.

It had been a very long time. Longer than he could possibly fathom. Yet, still, he could find the melody of Saria's Song deep in the recesses of his mind, and he was comforted by her memory. He used to wonder if the Sages had still ascended in this new world, if they would be able to reach him here. He didn't anymore, nobody but the young Hero he trained seemed able to cross into his purgatory.

He slumped back down, admitting defeat in his pursuit of sunlight. He had fought so long and so hard and gave up so much, and he was not only denied a death but also a life. He knew, as he had known for some time, he would never see the sun or the trees or the fields again. A whole seven years that never happened existed only in his head, as frail and faded as rotting parchment. As he sunk back down against the crumbling castle walls, he reflected on those years as if to preserve the memory, if only to prove to himself the hero he was. And, in vain, attempting to remember any more songs that he could share in his memories under the moon.

* * *

_Originally published on Tumblr. The Hero's Shade reflects. Inspired by this watch?v=anBAdRUPMY8 piece of music._


	5. Now It's Over

**Now It's Over**

He felt nothing. Nothing at all. There was just darkness, and emptiness. He could not feel his body or hear his breath. The only sensation he was aware of was the warmth, a thick, suffocating blanket. The darkness seemed to envelope him and carry him away, far into the void.

The Hero was helpless, like a child. He could not make any sound nor reach out into the dark. He felt himself crying, though with the absence of damp tears on swollen cheeks. Just the feeling remained. With only the ability to think left, he swung his mind back to what preceded this darkness. He, no longer able to walk, had slumped gently to the forest floor. It was not his forest, no, it was far away beyond anywhere he could place. Not Hyrule, not Termina, but further than that. He had been looking for her longer than he could possibly fathom, and no longer knew where the path took him. He had closed his aged, failing eyes and began to slumber.

His body had remained there, in a country that was not his, with a name nobody could remember. His mind was here, with him, and he could feel by the urge to cry and call her name that his heart still remained in this nothingness. His soul, he could not account for. Only the Goddesses knew. The Goddesses… where were they now? He had long forsaken his traditional garb, feeling now it held no purpose, and had adopted the armour of the old warriors of Termina. He had become jaded and cynical with the country he loved, that he had saved in a different time. But not this time. Here, he was unrecognised. Perhaps the Goddesses were punishing him for abandoning their Hyrule, his Hyrule, that he had been chosen to protect.

He was certain now that this was the death that they had chosen for him. They had taken all that was the hero in him and left it to rot, so he would not be remembered in death just as in life. All that was his was his memories and his love for his friends, his lost, long gone friends, and the most lost of all. The Hero cried again, and this time his eyes responded, though only one was any use now. Light, tone and shape returned around him, and he could feel grass and stone.

He had been deposited in a large, featureless courtyard, of an equally large and featureless castle. There was little colour, just shades of greys and browns. The sky above was empty, no clouds, no sun, no wind. Though there was grass, it was brittle and unwelcoming to lie in, and no trees or other flora provided a welcome rest.

The Hero collapsed against a crumbling wall, and waited. For what, he was not sure. But perhaps the Goddesses had not forsaken him yet. Maybe, they could offer some redemption.


	6. Stargazing

**Stargazing**

He had loved, lived and died for his country. Every tear, every drop of blood, every exhalation of breath had been poured into his quest and his role and his life as the Hero of Time. He had given up his childhood in pursuit of peace, seven years of waiting and fighting and travelling now lost to time itself. What he had endured, his victories and his achievements now lay known only to him, and no celebration or thanks would he ever recieve from the land he'd been born to protect.

Link felt from the moment he came into this world, he had been tied to it inextricably. For reasons he may never understand, the Goddesses had chosen him to protect it and, for a long time he had believed, him alone. He had watched it rise, and fall, and then went back to watch the rise again. Now, as he stood and waited in front of the looming Hyrule Castle, long changed and rebuilt since his youth, he barely recognized it as his own. Hylians were a fractured race, humanity spilling into the cracks and replacing the populace. Those he considered his true people, the forest children, were long gone and the mystery surrounding their disappearance distressed him still. Gone was Lon Lon Ranch, gone was Old Kakariko, gone was the Temple of Time and the Castle Town it had stood in. He had not been here to witness the end of his Hyrule and the start of this, he had been travelling in lands far from his own. Sometimes, he had wondered if he had come back to the right Hyrule, if he had been caught in another temporal drift and ended up in a world which shared its name but not its face.

His body was ruined, now. It had lain and withered in the forests far from his own, and woken in the ghostly half-world he now roamed. Only this bestial form could breach what was now Hyrule, only in howls could he tell his successor where to find him. In those training sessions, he could only convey the lessons of the sword, not the lessons of the heart and mind that heroism so desperately needed. How could Link explain the loss and the loneliness? How to hold on to your sense of duty when you have nothing left and nothing to fight for? What to do when you were no longer needed, and how to find a way when a normal way of life was now unobtainable to you? He had not the words for this, but his heart ached to take the burden on for himself and let this young man go back to the life he had now lost at the Goddesses' behest. He was old and broken and had nothing left to lose; he had defeated the King of Evil before and he could surely do it again. But no, it was not him they had wanted. They had left him here in his half-life, cast aside for another Hero.

As he waited here to pass on his last skill to his successor, he felt both a crushing sense of personal failure and yet some redemption. He had not been able to save this world from Ganondorf - he had come back again and his whole life's work had been in vain. But at least he could try and help the young one succeed where he had failed, and put some of those years of fighting to use. Something worthwhile had to come out of his existence, something good had to come of all the evil he had endured. He wondered, daringly, if he might be allowed to rest when this lesson was done. If he could finally rest in his grave under the remains of his beloved tree that some kind soul had made for him. If, in death, he might be at peace with the people he had lost. Hyrule would reclaim its golden child to the earth, and his name would be all but lost on the whisper of the sweet Hyrulean breeze.

Above him, the stars were the only breaks in the vast, black expanse. Dawn was some hours away yet and the night was at its very darkest, shadows moving across the market square. The sky, at least, was the same as it was all those years ago. Link could pick out constellations he had named and admired in his youth, and remembered how even in distant Termina, with its strange and alien moon, still had his stars. Oh, the things he had seen; the places, the people, that survived only in his memories and that nobody else could ever share in. All lost to the ravages of time, a force he had long been associated with, that he once believed he mastered, only to find out that time served no one. It was as cruel and unforgiving to those who could leap about it freely as it was to everyone else.

The moon dipped low, the first light of dawn creeping over the horizon. Hours were nothing to him; days even less. He took in the last of the cosmos, feeling that it would be the final time he'd ever stargaze, and rose to his paws as the sound of boots crossed the plaza.

He had loved, lived and died for his country. It was all he'd ever known.


End file.
